The River's Hiding Maiden: Chihiro Ogino
by princessoftheshadowsofdestiny
Summary: I never knew why Chihro Ogino was so distant always staring out the window... Chihiro through the eyes of a class mate as a certain river is brought back. Story 2 in the multi anime reasoning series


**_ Edited and extended 6/6/13_  
**

**Hello people of vicadin land this is princess-chan over here reporting for the second installment of the reasoning series. If you didn't know vicadin is a pain medicine that you have to get a prescription for because if you have even two of them you get drunker than the man who lives in the bar! I believe that I'm ready to write a story from the point of view of a poor smitten boy going after one of my favorite anime girls! Hmm which one?... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'll do Chihiro! Here comes a lovely story for you and Haku girly Yay!**

**I just realized that the previous paragraph was a hundred words long, Huh. Words fly when you write fan fiction don't they?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited away! That is the honor of the one and only Hayao Miyazaki! He is one of my anime hero's! He's up with Rumiko Takahashi the creator of Inuyasha! Go watch Inuyasha if you haven't It and this introduced me to the wonderful world of anime!**

**Onward!**

**The River's Hiding Maiden: Chihiro Ogino**

No one understood her, not even me as infatuated as I was with the lovely girl. She had been missing for a year before she came here and arrived late with a purple hair tie and a silver binder that never left her presence.

Why was it that whenever I looked at her during class she was looking out the window sadly, not taking notes, yet she always got straight A's?

Why was it that whenever she wasn't looking out the window she was drawing in that binder? No one had ever seen what was inside before, but nobody ever asked if they could. I don't know if she would let them even if they did ask.

One day, after I had been out for a family funeral, I asked if she could give me the notes, even with the knowledge that she never took them. As I opened up the note book she gave me, I saw in elegant kanji all of the notes we had done in calligraphy done with only a pencil. I sat in silent awe as I copied the notes not even having a single idea as to how she could've written them.

Eventually the first year was over and while everyone else said goodbye to their friends, she stood in a corner alone. She never had any friends, for the girl who was missing but hadn't known what happened in the years span had been dubbed strange and was to be avoided.

On the seventh of July, I found her at the alter for the annual Tanabata (1) festival hanging a thin sheet of silver paper with blue lining with a name on it, and the name seemed to be of a kami. Nigihayami Kohaku nushi was written in perfect kanji that flowed like water as the wind pushed it around, ripping it from its place on the shoot. It wove through the air and disappeared.

The old priestess turned to the girl with a sparkle in her eye. "I believe that means your wish will come true, wont it young lady," the old woman chuckled at her bright smile.

"Of course it will ,It was promised after all, but sometimes I need a little bit of reassurance," The girl looked down with a smile that seemed almost sad to me. Her mother pulled her forward and they went back home.

It took me another three months after they started school to finally work up the nerve to ask her the question no one had ever dared to inquire, not even the teachers.

She had had her head angled above a sheet of canvas that was being constantly caressed by smooth paint brush strokes that could be heard from my seat at the lunch table behind her. Her eyes were unfocused to the world around her, only paying attention to the piece of canvas before her, her details down to the specks of dirt on the portrait.

I walked up to her, still working up that last portion of nerve before I spoke,"What is it that you are drawing?" I asked quietly not want ting to startle her.

She looked surprised at the question, then slid her canvas towards me. I examined it careful not to touch the wet paint.

She had done a portrait of a proud silver dragon with a light greenish blue mane. His fangs werer bared as he roared toward the sky, the river he was flying above showing mighty and aggressive power. His jade eyes shined with happiness as his talons ripped through the air skimming the waters rushing with the strong current.

I got all of this from one look at the painting. She had paid so much attention to detail that I could see the kappa underneath the small lily pad jump up and grab me, or the strong dragon come and tear me to ribbons with his sharp talons.

I silently slid the canvas back to her, still in a mental limbo from my shock. As I walked away I had noticed the neat kanji of the title, Nigihayami Kohaku nushi, the same name she had written on her ornate tanabata scroll.

Another few years passed and we were both sixteen, when I found her looking at the construction zone in my back yard. She inquired what was going on and I told her that the city had planned to restore the Kohaku river.

Her eyes danced with a hidden light of what I saw as hope at my words. Before I could ask her about it, she had run in the direction of the great forest near her home, pulling flips and cartwheels along her way.

Two months later I woke up due to a splashing sound outside of my open window. I fumbled towards it and looked through to see a full moon over the newly restored Kohaku river. Chihiro Ogino, the goddess of ignoring all water for if she didn't she began to cry, was playing in the river.

I literally took a step back wiped my eyes and looked again just to see if I was hallucinating, but when I looked out again, my gaze searching for answers that made sense, I was still met with the same sight.

A slim form wove through the strong current as I watched, surfacing And becoming a boy about our age with greenish black hair and pale skin.

He and Chihiro embraced like old friends, then kissed like waiting lovers. I watched as he took her hand and led her into the water, but as they both slid beneath the surface, they disappeared.

No one, not even me or her parents saw her ever again, but the morning after she disappeared, the canvas I had asked her to show me was at my doorstep, but this time its other side wasn't blank.

A more detailed picture of the green haired man lay before me, but the thing that surprised me the most was the title. It was the same as the river, the tanabata scroll and the painting on the other side, Nigyhayami Kohaku nushi.

That was what tied it all together for me, I knew then that Chihiro had always been a river maiden. My only question that had never been answered still rings in my mind at this moment as I pass into death, why she was hiding here in the human world at all?

I will be content to pass on without an answer, so long as she is happy.

Chihiro Ogino, goodbye…

**(1) Festival in which you write down a wish or love interest on paper and ornament it then hang it on bamboo. Wish said to come true if it blows off of the bamboo branch after being tied on tightly and disappears.**

**Wow, even I didn't know that I was going to end it like that! I wrote a rough draft but the ending wasn't anything like that. I was deep enough to surprise myself with that one. Thank you for reading, please review and tell me what you think of this. I'm intrigued.**


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